Wednesday, 12/19/12

Mike Buckley’s New York Times crossword

NY Times crossword solution, 12 19 12

The theme is clued [Start of a thought by British journalist Miles Kington]: KNOWLEDGE IS KNOWING A TOMATO IS A FRUIT. WISDOM IS NOT PUTTING IT IN A FRUIT SALAD. Wow, that’s putting the bar pretty low for wisdow, isn’t it? You could have neither knowledge nor wisdom about tomatoes, and just go with tasting it. Your palate should tell you that the flavor isn’t quite in line with the fruits in fruit salad. Although it must be said that those grape tomatoes are sometimes so sweet and flavorful, I can’t swear they wouldn’t work in a bowl with melon, berries, grapes, and citrus segments. Mmm, tomatoes.

Now, your 7d: [Heart chart, briefly] is an EKG in common parlance. In my medical editing work, though, the electrocardiogram is abbreviated ECG. If you know it as an ECG and you don’t know your Boy Scout terminology, you can certainly be excused for guessing that [Scout pack leader] is ACELA (a fast Amtrak route between NY and DC, isn’t it?) rather than AKELA. Also, I call baloney on “scout” as shorthand for Boy Scouts of America. Girl Scouts are scouts, too.

11d isn’t about math. The [Calculus, familiarly] here is TARTAR, as in tartar-control toothpaste. Calculus is hard! Yes, it is. It’s hardened mineral deposits on your teeth that can be scraped off with sharp metal curettes. The etymology for math and tartar goes back to the same thing—rock-like minerals vs. math done via pebbles on an abacus. Who knew? I should have looked that up 20 years ago.

Not much else to note on either the “yay” or “boo” front. Not terribly excited by the fill overall, and I have heard some form of the quip before so the “aha” moment was a minuscule one. 2.9 stars.

As the specifications for one crossword outlet state: “THEMES should be fresh and consistently constructed. In general, avoid cliched themes (colors, animals, etc.), although a new approach to an old theme will be considered.” Does this puzzle constitute a “new approach” on a color-based theme? You be the judge:

17-Across: The [Embarrassed fish?] is a RED HERRING. Don’t get too distracted by this.

32-Across: The [Inexperienced stinger?] is a GREEN HORNET. I preferred the Brown Hornet from Fat Albert.

48-Across: The [Frightened Senate staffers?] are YELLOW PAGES. For my money, this was the best of the bunch.

65-Across: A [Sad arrest?] might be called a BLUE COLLAR.

I guess color puns are a gray area for me in that I wanted to like the theme more than I did. Fortunately, the fill was much better. I loved the eight-letter Acrosses, CLUB SODA and, especially, YOGA MATS. Other goodies included PEDI, EASY A, OH GOSH, Alf LANDON, MUSCLE CARS, AXIOM, and Daffy Duck’s WEBBED feet.

I could have cracked the 4-minute barrier if I had tried LICIT instead of LEGIT as the answer to [Legal]. (To some, the appropriate hashtag for this paragraph would be #humblebrag. But if you note the other solving times around here, it’s more like #eventhelosersgetluckysometime.)

Favorite entry = DELTA, the [Alternative to United]. (Hey, I live in Atlanta. I have to root for the home team, right?) Favorite clue = [Part of a bucket list?] for MOP.

Anyway we have a really imaginative theme: four idioms all begin with a verb associated with riding horses and the idioms are clued “X, cowboy-style”. We have:

17a, [Lay a trip on, cowboy-style?], SADDLEWITHGUILT

27a, [Spur into action, , cowboy-style?], SPURINTOACTION

43a, [Control spending, cowboy-style?], REININTHECOSTS

56a, [Hang in there, cowboy-style?], RIDEOUTTHESTORM

As always, a four spanner (or nearly) grid curtails room for splashy non-theme answers, but that doesn’t mean our authors haven’t made a mighty fine grid, and besides the theme was really neat wasn’t it?

Bullets:

6a, [Black-clad subculturist], GOTH. Are they still extant? There were a few around still in my highschool ca. 2003…

32a, [Decathlon gold medalist Ashton ___],EATON. No idea. I think we’ve covered that my knowledge of decathletes is a little sketchy… The Ashton I know is a female, so I was a bit confused (decathletes are always male AFAIK), though I guess Mr. Kutcher isn’t female… Anyway, he’s the current gold medalist: so kudos for keeping things hip and happening even if I can’t keep up!

34a, [Chest protector], BIB. Clever, succinct clue!

63a, [Swimming contest], MEET. Around these parts they’re called galas.

25 Responses to Wednesday, 12/19/12

I had the same thought about EKG/ECG, which are used interchangeably. I lean toward EKG so I got it right, but that was just luck. I’d never heard the quip before and still didn’t have much of an “aha” moment. It was more like an “oh, eh” moment.

Gee, I found the NYT quote more amusing than that. I wonder if it’s being subjected to the same overanalysis to which I am also frequently prone.

Re the CS (I guess it’s the CS — the Alan Arbesfeld Washington Post): I’m not sure Mexicans would appreciate the characterization {Peninsula bordering California} for BAJA, any more than Floridians would appreciate being described as “bordering” the United States. It almost reminds of the time I heard a depressingly stereotypical Ugly American, in Toledo, Spain, saying in a loud voice “I’m from the *real* Toledo — Toledo, Ohio.

The NYT quote hit right away as déjà vu, but I like your image of little stone beads lined up to use for calculating on an abacus. Also little chunks of food lined up on a spit for a KEBAB, which is always a Kabob in my mind, but I don’t know why. And speaking of exotic foods, I hope someone will explain the basis for 21A when we get to the Tausig!

Wow the NYT was easy! 2:44 taking 45 seconds (!) off my Wednesday record. I’d have broken my Tuesday record with that too… Rest of the puzzle was Monday and once the first bit of the quote emerged I typed it in its entirety. I’ve seen it in a puzzle before (CS? [- Yes! Well spotted, Amy!]), though I think was amused then.

Link is still pointing to last week’s puzzle. Right click on the link, select “copy link address”, paste the link into your browser at the top, then increment it a week and hit return to get the one above.

KABAB, KABOB, KEBAB, KEBOB, CABOB – 4 0f 5 of which I have seen on my many sign-reading/food-hunting pilgrimages through the streets of NYC. Have yet to see the “C-” version but I would pass it by as I think I just prefer the taste of a K.

I’m afraid I again have to confess pervasive confusions over what puzzles I am submitting ratings for. I submitted a lowish rating for the puzzle called “Tausig” above. But I thought I was rating the American Values Puzzle, which frankly I thought was pretty weird and didn’t like very much. But apparently the intended puzzle was the “Add a Y” theme which I though was really clever and challenging, and which I would have rated much more highly. Apologies to Ben et al, although this is a good news – bad news post.

I liked the echo of the Walter Mosley book/Denzel Washington movie, Devil in a Blue Dress. [Soldier in a Blue Dress] is a great mirror to that, but something with initial caps isn’t a title in a crossword clue unless it’s italicized or enclosed in quotation marks.